Monday, 12 December 2011

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect new information that another Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker, whose story had strong similarities and had also been reported in the Norwegian media, was in fact a different person. That Iraqi has been granted asylum. His name and picture have been removed from this story at his request.

The
High Court accepted that 'Azad' was gay and that gay men in
Iraq are at risk, including at risk of being killed, but it ruled that 'Azad' must comply with Iraq's socio-cultural norms'.

'Azad' is a Kurd and the Immigration authorities claimed
that risks to gay men in the Kurdish region "differs greatly" from the rest of
Iraq and that he can seek protection from the Kurdish autonomous
region's authorities.

His lawyer, Jon Ole Martinsen, said that:

"In practice it means to hide your sexual orientation, for if it is
discovered you will be in danger of being persecuted."

'Azad' told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) that:

"My clan is going to kill me. Gays and lesbians cannot live openly in Iraq."

So-called 'honor killing' is a major problem in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Last month a report emerged of police raiding a gay party in Kalar, a small town in Kurdistan, arresting 25 men.

In September the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and
the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) released a report which said that attacks on LGBT in Iraq had continued in 2010.

'Azad' has been in a relationship with Norwegian Odd Arne Henriksen since
they met in 2006. Henriksen said that if 'Azad' was sent to Iraq he would go with him.

"In our family we
don't give up so easily. We stand at the very end," he told NRK.

Last year, in a landmark decision, the British Supreme Court, in a case involving a Cameroonian and an Iranian, decided that gay or lesbian asylum seekers could not be told to 'go home and be discrete'.

Martinsen said that 'Azad''s case will now be taken up to the Norwegian Supreme Court.

In the last two years, 40 of 52 gay people seeking asylum have been rejected according to Norwegian government figures. The Ministry of Justice said in an e-mail to NRK that they are considering changing how LGBT asylum cases are dealt with.

"They must say that it cannot be required of each applicant to hide his [sexual] orientation on return", says Martinsen.

"Norway should be a leader that protects everyone, regardless of sexual orientation."

Other
European countries, including France, do not return Iraqis and UNHCR
continues to say it is unsafe to return asylum seekers to Iraq.

Last week the Iraqi Minister of Immigration Dindar Najman told AKnews that Baghdad airport will no longer admit Iraqis
who are deported from Europe by force.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) have repeatedly
accused the Iraqi government of signing a deal with European countries
which deport Iraqis in return for dropping Iraqi debts. Among the
countries that have started forced deportations via Baghdad since 2005 are
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

According to the IFIR 5,000 to 6,000 Iraqi refugees, most of them Kurds, have been deported from Europe since then.

Kurdistan-based chief of IFIR, Amanj Abdulla, told AKnews no European
country has tried to send any refugee back to Iraq since the decision
was made so the authority's resolve to enforce this ban remains
untested.

Nevertheless, he valued the decision as "a positive step in favor of Iraqi refugees".

10 comments:

He can come here to Argentina. Or Uruguay, even to Brazil, where gays are more accepted. Immigration laws are more or less of a joke, so he won't have problems to apply. The economy isn't that bad either -not the first world, but hardly the worst- so he won't be lost and he can have a future too. If he only chooses Norway and/or Europe, he is just an economic migrant.

Where is the online petition where we can add our names and send it to Norway protesting these deportations? I would think that this site above others would have started such a petition or would link to where there was one.

I would only start anything like a petition with permission, and I don't have it.

Also, he literally cannot be removed because Iraq won't allow it and the legal case is ongoing. I would suspect that the lawyer in those circumstances wouldn't want a petition but the question is out there.

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